THE OIREACHTAS Committee on Health and Children is to seek a meeting with the Attorney General on why the official report into the controversy surrounding the retention of human organs by hospitals could not be published.
The chairman of the committee, John Moloney of Fianna Fáil, said it would look for a private briefing with the attorney on the reasons his office maintained that the report of the Dunne inquiry could not be released publicly. He said the committee would also be raising the issue with Minister for Health Mary Harney at a meeting early next month.
It would see if the Minister was prepared to work on a formula that would allow parents affected by the controversy to examine material collected by the Dunne inquiry but never published.
There was cross-party support for Mr Moloney's proposal at the committee yesterday, which heard a presentation from the Parents for Justice group, which represents families affected.
Charlotte Yeats of the group said the Dunne inquiry into organ retention had been established in March 2001, and closed down by Ms Harney in March 2005.
She said no findings or recommendations were published, although 54 boxes of material had been presented to the Department of Health.
She said the parents had been consistently denied access to these documents.
Ms Yeats said former health minister Micheál Martin had promised the group a statutory investigation would be held if the Dunne inquiry did not meet its objectives.
Ms Yeats said the majority of parents affected by the controversy were not interested in compensation - although a handful were - but rather wanted answers to their questions.
Fianna Fáil senator Geraldine Feeney said the organ retention controversy was "along the lines of the Neary scandal" and should have been treated in the same manner.
The presentation by the Parents for Justice group had made her stomach feel sick.
Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin of Sinn Féin said the controversy was a "hidden and shameful secret within the health service".
Independent TD Beverley Flynn said if the hospitals had co-operated one person on the phone could have got the necessary answers within a week.
She said she failed to understand how €20 million had been spent over five years with no answers produced.
Kathleen Lynch of Labour said that if there was an issue about natural justice in not publishing the report, this also had to extend to the victims.